Hopefuls who lined up at Gentex Corp.'s job fair have tough stories to tell

Mark Copier | The Grand Rapids PressHundreds of job seekers stand in line to apply at the Gentex Corp. job fair held in the Holland DoubleTree Hotel Tuesday. ZEELAND -- About 100 lucky job seekers will learn in a month that they made the cut for production manufacturing jobs at Gentex Corp.

Kris Bridgewater and work buddy Matthew Pease came 30 minutes before the fair's scheduled start time and found themselves behind 150 people who got there before them.

Mark Copier | The Grand Rapids PressThe line snaked far and long for the Gentex job fair."This couldn't have come at a better time because I'm going to get laid off on Friday," said Bridgewater, 32, who works for industrial furnace manufacturer StrikoDynarad in Zeeland. "I told them not to look for me at work today because I was going to the job fair to find another job."

Pease, 34, has been laid off from StrikoDynarad for a year and has applied for 50 or 60 jobs in that time.

"I had four jobs lined up, but at each one, the company decided it would be doing layoffs instead of hiring," he said.

Those attending the job fair filled out application forms and then verified information with an interviewer. The company plans to do background and work history checks and then call some applicants back for interviews.

Gentex has 80 to 100 openings for second- and third-shift production workers for mirror assembly at its Zeeland plant, said Bruce Los, vice president of human resources. Starting salaries are $11.45 an hour.

"The auto companies have continued to build inventory in anticipation of sales ramping up in 2010, and we're preparing to meet the demand," Los said.

Workers will be hired through a temporary placement agency for three to six months before joining Gentex, he said.

The company has 2,300 employees in Zeeland and 100 worldwide. Los said the company is also looking to hire 40 to 50 electronics and design engineers. This was the third job fair the company has held since October.

"We have to be cautious that the work will still be there in six months, but we don't want to keep people on temporary contracts for a long time," Los said.

Originally planned to run from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Tuesday's job fair started interviews at 9 a.m. because of the early turnout.

The large number of job seekers did not discourage Jason Rangel, who drove in from Grand Rapids with his father, Jesse Rangel, to apply.

"It's reality," said Jason Rangel, 23, who has been out of work since losing a production job at Haworth Inc. in February. "There's a lot of people without jobs around West Michigan and any chance you get is a good one."

Some people at the event already had jobs.

Allegan resident Pamela Hatter came to see if she could find a job closer to her home.

"I'm a baker at the Firekeepers Casino (in Battle Creek), but it's a 130-mile round-trip drive every day that's costing me $100 a week in gas," she said. "Gentex would be a lot closer for me."